Well, thanks to Filmaka’s Nicole, we have figured out our technical problems so watch this space for more frequent blogs.

Here’s what’s been going on since our last blog:

* NEW HOME PAGE: Here’s a shout-out to our designer Ryan and our India-based development team based. Congrats on doing such a great job with the new Filmaka.com home page. Since our April 2008 launch, we have received some great suggestions from the Filmaka community about how to tweak our website. One of the main suggestions involved re-organizing the information to make the benefits to community members easier to understand at a glance. That’s why we now have three primary areas: Make a Movie (our feature and documentary competition), Join the Community (member discounts, member success stories), and Get a Job (working with brands and agencies or jobs our members received because of their Filmaka work). We hope you like these changes and, if you have other ideas, e-mail us here or at info@filmaka.com

* FILMAKAS ROCKED THE WEBBYS: Our talented team from Mexico City – Luis, Arturo, and Rodrigo – flew to the Big Apple to attend the 13th Annual Webby Awards with Filmaka’s Allison Polly and Jana Augsberger (who was an early champion of their work and who greenlit their Best Drama Series THE TEN COMMANDMENTS OF LA VIDA LOCA . Check out the photo of the guys with Webby host Seth Myers on the Filmaka home page. You’ll be hearing from them in their own words very soon.

* FILMAKA’S YOU TUBE CHANNEL: TEN COMMANDMENTS also has its own “playlist” on our YouTube Channel which Filmaka’s Nicole, Jason, and Craig have been working hard to revamp. Check it out and help spread the word (send to your friends on Facebook!) We look at this Channel as a great way to bring attention to our members’ best work. You’ll see we have created “playlists” for several web series as well as short films, branded entertainment, and even jury interviews. We’ll be adding a lot more content in the near future, including documentaries.

* DIRECTV STATUS: Thanks to everyone who submitted to the DIRECTV FILM CHALLENGE. As we mentioned a couple weeks back, DIRECTV requested additional time to review your entries. They were extremely impressed with everyone’s hard work. We expect to speak with DIRECTV any day and will keep you posted.

I am sure there’s more but, if I don’t stop now, this will be the longest blog entry ever.

Filmaka received some really big news last week – THE TEN COMMANDMENTS OF LA VIDA LOCA won the WEBBY AWARD for BEST DRAMA SERIES. We are very excited about this huge honor, not only for ourselves, but also – and primarily for – the creative team behind the series: Luis Bernal Salazar, Rodrigo Lopez Aldana, and Arturo Gonzalez Alonso. We have gotten to know these guys very well over the past two years. They really poured their hearts and souls into the creation of this web series – almost getting arrested and worse – so this honor is hugely deserved.

Over the next couple of weeks, we’ll recount the journey of the series from inception to its current success. This is only the beginning for THE TEN COMMANDMENTS and our talented filmmakers from Mexico City. More on that later.

- Jason Zachary Haikara (three names in honor of the tres amigos with three names)

Rodrigo Lopez Aldana and Luis Bernal Salazar with The Guild’s Felicia Day

Last week, filmmakers Luis Bernal Salazar and Rodrigo Lopez Aldana travelled from Mexico City to Los Angeles to attend the 1st Annual Streamy Creative Arts and Awards Ceremonies. Their dramatic Filmaka web series THE TEN COMMANDMENTS OF LA VIDA LOCA received a nomination for BEST ARTISTIC CONCEPT. THE TEN COMMANDMENTS was the only non-English language web series to receive a nomination - in any category. While in LA, Luis and Rodrigo met with Deepak Nayar (Bend It Like Beckham, Lost Highway) and the Filmaka team as well as a television and movie production company.

At the Streamys, Luis and Rodrigo walked the Red Carpet, conducted press interviews, and mingled with web celeb Felicia Day, who took home Streamys for Best Actress in a Comedy and Best Comedy (The Guild). Felicia also stars in the hit web series Dr. Horrible’s Sing-a-long Blog which won several awards at the event.

More photos of Luis and Rodrigo at the Streamys can be found on THE TEN COMMANDMENTS OF LA VIDA LOCA Facebook page. The episodes can be viewed on Facebook and on Filmaka.com.

Welcome to Filmaka!

Filmaka, the vision of independent film producer Deepak Nayar (Bend It Like Beckham, Buena Vista Social Club)and Thomas Augsberger (Mr. Brooks, Waiting) is a global creative community and video entertainment studio. The community is powered by a series of competitions which reward filmmakers with production budgets, cash prizes, diverse employment opportunities and potential management and talent agency representation. Stay updated by subscribing to the RSS feed.